Here is an expression of God’s tender immanence: God is as close to us as our very breath. In the second creation story we are offered the image of a transcendent and powerful God who gathers up earth and mud and lovingly molds each indentation, dimple, and crevice into the human person, breathing divine spirit and life that animates the human into a living being. The first Genesis creation story says the mighty wind was present at the very beginning of creation. WindĪll praise be Yours, my God, through Brothers Wind and Air,Īnd fair and stormy, all the weather’s moods,īy which You cherish all that You have made. In opening ourselves to these metaphors for how God works in the world, we discover a God who dwells at the heart of all living things, who sustains and transforms creation moment by moment, and who is an indispensable presence in the world. We experience ourselves as a part of the matrix of the natural world and as creatures just like other creatures. The communion feast springs from the gifts of bread and wine, earth’s nourishment.īy rooting our prayer in the elements, we begin to forge an awareness of how much we are a part of creation. The living water of baptism is a central symbol for our self-understanding as members of the Christian community. In the Christian scriptures, the four elements are represented in multiple ways. They give insight into the multiplicity of God’s qualities and celebrate a God who can be found within the matrix of creation. Likewise, the psalms use the language of wind, fire, water, and earth to describe the nature of the divine. These are images with which his listeners would have identified.Ĭhrist’s ministry also centers around elemental places: feasting on the gifts of the earth at the table, his appearance on the mountain as a place of transfiguration, his encounters at the well, and his own baptism in the Jordan River. Much of the language Jesus used is earth-based, rooted in metaphors of seed, fruit, and harvest. He expressed many of his teachings through parables, profound stories that reveal the nature of God and God’s reign. Jesus himself exemplifies our connection to creation. Creation itself is a sacred text through which the presence of God is revealed to us. They make us as stable as the land we live in.Īccording to the Celtic Christian tradition, there are two books of divine revelation: the book of scripture and the book of nature. How necessary it is for monks to work in the fields, in the rain, in the sun, in the mud, in the clay, in the wind: these are our spiritual directors and our novice-masters.
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